SAKAZUME Katsuyuki's ceramic artworks certainly exceed
the framework of traditional Japanese artistic handicrafts, with
his performance large in scale, dynamic in formation and overwhelming
in powerfulness, which reminds you of the production of Western
style objects.

However, he explicitly insists that his fundamental production
style, before everything else, comes from medieval ceramics artworks
that were used by tea-ceremony masters.

Why does he insist as the above? Because he believes this
way: The art of ceremonial tea-making is the synthetic art of
Japanese tradition. It is the starting point of Japanese culture,
in which Japanese traditional esthetics has a breathing space.

He was engaged in a variety of on-site studies and trial
productions of ceramic wares, and then studied ceramic artwork
abroad for years. He studied how to produce Oribe through high-firing
and hardening process. He worked on Bizen and Ko-iga, Japanese
time-honored wares, each at their actual locale in Japan.
He did the same with Korean ancient wares in the Korea Peninsula.
Probably what he has done like this caused him to struggle along
to his way of thinking as mentioned above.

At present, he is working on both pure artworks and tea-ceremony-related
works. He says he does not draw a dividing line at all between
these two, with each one of them regarded by him as identical
in essence.

To put his saying tersely, a work of art should not be
appreciated simply by its shape and color. In other words, it
is Japanese-style esthetics that is to be found in the artwork
that is worthy of appreciation.

In this sense, there is nothing difficult to appreciate
his artworks and this could lead us to the nearest to his achievement.

He has recently come up with artistic production and performance
in outdoor space. You will notice that each one of the finished
art pieces of his production is combined with each other.

This is one of the fruits of his experience and studying
of the ceramic artwork, both in Japan and abroad, which has included
all of the essentials needed such as clay selecting, molding,
and firing.

His work is attractive, being full of energy, deep in
profoundness and acute in tension, while getting you to feel
your mind at peace in his artistic space. I would be grateful
for your deeply artistic appreciation of his performance.(Translation by SAKAI Takahiko)